Alumni Spotlight

Film-maker, Shawn Garry 97, is busy working on his second feature film, "El Mandato," a biographical film about Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez—the Chilean cardinal who founded the "Vicaría de la Solidaridad" during the Pinochet Regime and was awarded the United Nations Human Rights award in 1978 for his work in defense of human rights. After Nido, Shawn attended the College of Santa Fe from where he obtained a B.A. in Moving Image in 2001. Garry's acclaimed first feature film "Desierto Sur" (2008) was presented and won various awards in numerous international film festivals including Mannheim-Heidelberg in Germany, Palm Springs, Shanghai, Viña del Mar, Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and many other festivals in Latin America, Asia and Europe. It has been widely distributed. Shawn also produced Diego Ruiz' movie "Iglu," and currently directs advertisement for FUNKY FILMS-DEMENTE CHILE, including controversial topics like therapeutic abortion for the NGO MILES CHILE. The series was honored with the Bronze Lion at the Cannes Festival in 2015. Shawn's upcoming film about Cardinal Silva Henriquez was featured in last Thursday's El Mercurio. Keep up the good work Shawn, we look forward to the screening of the film!

Congratulations Ricardo Bayón, Class of '85, founding partner of Encourage Capital and the Team at Encourage Capital for creating a new holding company, Pescador Holdings, aimed at helping make fishing more sustainable. Additionally, they have just announced that their first investment will be a sustainable seafood company in Chile. Encourage Capital is a new kind of investment firm that seeks to change the way investment capital is used to solve critical environmental and social problems.

According to Ricardo, "Two years ago Encourage began an experiment to see if we could turn the whole concept of impact investment on its head? What if instead of retrofitting the impact to the investment, we could design the investment around the impact? What would that look like? So we worked with some great partners like the Bloomberg Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, RARE and Oceana on a specific issue: the collapse of the world's fisheries. We asked ourselves: could we design an investment that would both help address the problem of fisheries collapse at the same time that it made money for investors? So we set out to create such an investment product." Today they have come full circle and actually turned one of those ideas into reality. Read more here. Encourage Capital is also looking into innovative ideas for investments that may help reduce the plastic contamination of the world's oceans.

Congratulations to Kyoung H. Park, Class of 2000, who will be in an artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York this Spring. Kyoung is the first Korean playwright from Latin America to be produced and published in the United States and he currently writes and directs his own work as Artistic Director of Kyoung's Pacific Beat—a non-profit, peacemaking theater company. Through his company, Kyoung explores sources of violence and engages with local communities to develop an empathetic understanding of underrepresented perspectives. After Nido, Kyoung received his BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, MA in Peace and Global Governance from Kyung Hee University's Graduate Institute of Peace Studies in South Korea, MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University's School of the Arts, and was a 2010 UNESCO-Aschberg Laureate. You can learn more about his work at www.kyoungspacificbeat.org and http://bacnyc.org/residencies/resident/kyoung-park.

Felipe Alessandri, Class of '92, has been elected Mayor of the Comuna de Santiago in Sunday's municipal elections. Felipe attended Nido from Kindergarten to 12th grade. He is a lawyer by profession and has been a concejal (member of the city council) during ten years. We wish him the best of luck in his new important role as mayor of downtown Santiago.

Congratulations to Marisol Alarcon, Class of 2001 and her team at Laboratoria Chile, for receiving the prestigious innovation award "Avonni 2016" in the area of Social Entrepreneurship. Laboratoria's program which provides technical training in computer programming and job skills to women in vulnerable situations has been tremendously successful. Over 70% of the trained women obtain jobs upon completion of the program, and are thus able to reimburse the cost of their training once employed. Marisol embodies the sense of community, generosity of spirit and innovation which characterize the "Nido Way". Bravo Marisol and Laboratoria!

Roberto Díaz, Class of '78, is a violist of international reputation, and President and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music. He has had a significant impact on American Music life in his dual roles of musician and educator. As a soloist, Roberto collaborates with leading conductors of our time on stages throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. He has also worked directly with important 20th-and 21st-century composers including Krzysztof Penderecki and Edison Denisov. Ricardo Lorenz, Robert Sierra, and Jennifer Higdon have all written concert for him. Robert attended Nido from kindergarten to grade 7, but remains in touch with his classmates. He was recently featured on PBS Newshour as part of a story about the personal qualities of passion, perseverance, and determination that successful people share. Watch it here, for insight into what sets people like Roberto and his students apart.

Congratulations to Julio Pinto (Class of '73), for receiving the prestigious Premio Nacional de Historia 2016, an award given by the government of Chile every two years to an individual who has made major contributions in the field of history. Julio is a historian and professor, with a BA, two Masters and PhD in History from Yale University. He has been working at the University of Santiago (Usach) since the 1980s, serving as director of its History and Scientific & Technological Research Departments, and most recently of the PhD Program in History. He has published and edited various books and articles regarding Chile's political and economic transformation in the 20th century, as well as key social and political conflicts related to the modern working class and organized labor.